


The Otter, the Horse, and the Hare

by sparrowwrites



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Borderline Personality Disorder, Depression, F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-26
Updated: 2016-03-28
Packaged: 2018-05-29 03:58:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,556
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6358126
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sparrowwrites/pseuds/sparrowwrites
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ginny has never been the same after her introduction to Tom Riddle's diary. Mental illness consumes the young girl's mind while her two best friends, Hermione and Luna, fight to bring her back from the brink in this story of loss, love, lust, and healing. Eventual Hermione/Ginny.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Falling to Pieces

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own Harry Potter or any of its characters.

Ginevra was never the same after her experience with Tom Riddle’s diary in her first year at Hogwarts. The Weasleys, Fred and George especially, noticed how her eyes had a different look to them. They seldom gave off the callow and almost mischievous sparkle that was previously her trademark. In the months that followed, she was no longer infatuated with Harry Potter as far as anyone in the family could tell. There were no more poems, notes, doodles, or any writing for that matter with any mention of The Chosen One in her possession. Any existing evidence of such items were promptly destroyed at the redhead’s hands. It was as though she were afraid of the mere fact that the boy who lived was still in existence.

When Harry was at the burrow during summer break before his third year, Ginny constantly made excuses to leave the house to wander the fields or practice flying in the meadow. It was unusual for her especially since she had legitimately followed him everywhere the previous couple years. The rest of the Weasley’s eventually realized it was in order to avoid his presence in general and pitied his naivety of the rejection yet continued to feed his want for her attention with “little white lies”. It was puzzling to the boy and hurt him in a way he did not expect to be hurt. He felt as though he had lost more than a friend despite knowing her for only a short period of time.

Once school started again in September of ‘93, Ron made the mistake of asking his sister about the lack of Harry Potter gossip heard in the household over the summer months and was plagued with the effects of a well-aimed Bat-Bogey Hex for several days afterward. This incident quickly stifled all other talk about Ginny’s peculiar behavior within the Gryffindor house… although, nobody could deny the presence of her new idiosyncrasies that had risen to the surface.

Ginny had always been the quiet type. At least, she was around most people. Her shyness was a part of her personality before the diary but it was never as debilitating as it had been after. Almost nothing broke her solemn gaze and, quite frankly, it was unnerving to some first years.

There was a time when she had been asked to lead a young group of students to the great hall by her older brother, Percy, that may have ended unfortunately due to her newfound frigid nature. Percy was never quite as - perceptive - as the rest of his family. Any other person that saw the cold, dark look in her eyes would have asked a much less frightening guide to lead the first years, but he never thought once about it. One look from Ginny and one of the boys nearly fainted while a couple of the girls ran off only to literally run into an irritable Professor Snape on his rounds between classes. He summoned McGonagall and the rest, well... The poor redhead was scrubbing trophies for a week.

Fred and George would often use their comedic banter and joke-shop-esque talents to force the girl to smile and loosen up a bit. They hated to see their little sister so miserable. Occasionally the smirk and callow sparkle in her eyes would return. It was almost immediately extinguished, though. Ginny was never able to ignore her nagging thoughts for long. She sometimes just gave in to them for there was never anything that exhausted her more than to "unhear" what she was forced to listen from the moment she woke up until the moment she fell asleep again at night.

The thoughts were intrusive and scared her for awhile when they first started but it became a normality to have more than one voice inside her head. She was never truly alone even when they ceased their near-constant whispering and occasional yelling. Ginny always knew they would be back. To her, they're an old friend that cannot be shaken no matter the grievances they may cause.

No one could ever know what was going on inside the poor girl’s head, unfortunately. Of course, it was obvious that she had felt wary of Harry Potter from the very beginning of her possession of the diary horcrux. Perhaps it was her subconscious telling her that he was a horcrux himself despite not knowing what a horcrux was, or maybe Tom had driven a deep set fear of the Chosen One and his abilities into the depths of her mind. Only Ginny could figure that out and why it had taken so long to truly set in, and she was NOT about to talk about any of it to anyone. She was perfectly content avoiding the issue until it started impacting more than just the relationship, or lack thereof, between her and Harry.


	2. Inner Dementors

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own Harry Potter or any of its characters.

To the Weasleys' knowledge, Hermione Granger was the one person close enough to Ginny to be able to comfort her when whatever film roll that incessantly ran through her head became too much for the girl to handle on her own. An example of this was on the train to Hogwarts in ‘93 when she had held Ginny as she shook and cried from the presence of the dementors during their sweep search. Heaven knows what memories from the days of the diary those nasty creatures had resurrected. It was a surreal feeling for the older girl to comfort someone who had been through so much despite being so young.

Hermione attempted to remain as the young girl’s confidant through those first few summers. However, there was never any reason given to her for Ginny’s behavior and the avoidance of one of her best friends. Hermione had assumed it was because of her crush on the boy and attempted to give her advice on how to talk to him and be confident enough to stick around when he was talking to her. This, unfailingly, left a slight frown on Ginevra’s face and gave her a cool, if not slightly irritated, attitude for the rest of the day and, oftentimes, even longer than that if her mood had been sour to begin with.

Despite her efforts, Ginny’s facade was impenetrable to seemingly every tactic she tried. Hermione finally came to understand that being the brightest witch of the age was hardly helpful when it came to understanding how hurt the poor girl truly was and was content to be there when the girl needed to talk, no sooner nor later than that. Although, to her, contentment was never satisfactory enough in her mind.

Ginny felt guilty for not telling her good friend the truth. It pained her to see the brunette so desperate to help and unable to find the solution especially since she was the only one that even tried. Hermione always wanted an answer for everything. Everyone in the school could tell you that much. The younger girl, however, was never fully able to give her one and not for lack of trying. Ginevra did not know what a horcrux was back when she was (for lack of a better word) possessed by Tom Riddle’s memory and would not - could not - understand the inner workings of what had happened to her. Being exposed to and controlled by a literal half of He Who Must Not Be Named more than shook her up. There was hardly a second that went by that Ginny wasn’t replaying every diary entry in her head. After all, Harry had only a seventh of the bastard inside of him and he was affected immensely. If only the effects had been more apparent to her at the beginning, she may have prevented so much harm from being done.

“Hello, my name is Ginny.”  
“Hello, Ginevra. My name is Tom.”  
“Is this your diary, Tom?”  
“It is ours now, Ginevra.”

Ginny always thought back to that first entry with a grimace knowing that she should never have continued writing. As most eleven-year-olds do when something starts talking to them, unfortunately, she talked back. It knew her name. Even more peculiar was how each word written to her was read with a voice she had never heard before. Later on, she would discover that it was Tom Riddle's voice itself that read the entries to her in her head. However, as a seemingly mute young witch these days, she wasn’t about to tell anybody the horrid mistake she had made… not even the girl that stood by her every second she was capable, her brothers, or her parents whom she had been so close to before the start of first year.

She wanted to confide but there was never the right combination of words on her tongue when she needed them most. Hermione sensed this yearning more than once and attempted to coax those fickle words from the younger girl’s mind. Her only successful attempt fell after a late night episode of convulsive sobbing that ended with the two girls curled up together on Hermione's bed. The compassionate, bright witch managed to bring forth, “Inner dementors,” from Ginny’s mouth before her mind shut down completely that evening and continued to remain closed off for several days afterward.

Later on, Ginny realized she could never formulate a better understanding of how she felt than those two words.


	3. Restful Nights

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own Harry Potter or any of its characters.

Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were beyond worried for their only daughter’s wellbeing. The distant look in her dull eyes that always proceeded a “Mum, Dad, I’m going for a bit of a hike,” became a source of emotional turbulence for the both of them. It filled her mother with anxiety and her father just the same. There were more than a few times that they had tried following her out to wherever her supposed safe haven resided. Mr. Weasley would even leave tracking charms on her clothing but to no avail. She was determined to be alone, they presumed, and they couldn't fix that.

Once the young redhead reached a certain point in the fields, her tracker would disappear and only reappear again once she had returned safely home. Attempts to keep her indoors and away from the fields were no use either as the girl would manage to get away every time. Consulting the family clock only left them with more questions than answers as well because her hand never left the mark "lost" no matter where she was until she fell asleep at night when it read "school" or "home" depending on which bed she was occupying.

Only Ginny knew the secret of leaving the Weasley property undetected. Well, Fred and George most certainly knew about it but they had no reason to use the passage yet. For the time being, they were content with joking about their little sister and insisting she stripped to avoid the trackers on her clothing. It was simple really. She only had to follow the path to the oak tree with a hollowed trunk. Once inside the trunk, it opened on the other side to a field full of wildflowers. The path continued on through the tall grasses and flowers to the top of the hill where her safe haven resided:

Luna Lovegood’s house.

Luna was almost always waiting for her with a tray of tea balanced on her palm and a rolled up copy of “The Quibbler” under her arm. The two would sit by the stream and talk for hours or stay in the house and curl up for a nap on either the couch or Luna’s four-poster bed in her room. Their friendship was a pleasant relief for Ginny for Luna never tried to point her in a direction that she believed was the best for her. Luna listened to her talk about meaningless things and bantered back with another pointless subject. 

Despite the lack of true gut spilling and heartfelt teary-eyed moments, the company was worth than her own weight in gold in Ginny’s mind. It was a distraction and a welcomed one at that from the monstrosity breeding between her ears. Distractions were always welcomed because it made the "unhearing" easier and less waning to the redhead. Luna understood Ginny’s pain in a way but never interfered with it and she was thankful for that.

Luna was thankful for the companionship and oftentimes anxiously awaited Ginny’s next arrival from the woods across the property. It became a weekly occurrence over summer break for the two girls to spend an entire day in each other's presence. They would talk, nap, drink tea, and sometimes even read books in the same room as each other because doing independent things together felt better than being alone. The redhead felt guilty when in the presence of others back home due to the untold truths they badgered her about. Here, there was no guilt.

In the summer before Ginny’s fifth year, Luna began inviting her over rather than simply waiting for the other girl to show up. Xenophilius, her father, would cook dinner for the two teens then leave them to themselves for the evening on these occasions. With their countless hours spent in the Room of Requirement studying combat spells for Dumbledore’s Army and after the horrifying events of their Ministry of Magic tour with the Golden Trio, they had become closer than they ever had been.

Ginny was glad to have a best friend like Luna. They snuck firewhisky from Mr. Weasley's hidden stash in the cellar of the Burrow. They talked about boys like normal schoolchildren. They even played truth or dare on more than one occasion. All in all, it made Ginny feel normal.

Unfortunately, despite four years of healing and attempting a barrage of spells to help her forget, Ginny was relentlessly cursed with her voices and the nightmares of the diary. It seemed to her that she was becoming haunted by her hatred of The Boy Who Lived.

Hermione and the younger girl had grown closer in the same way she had with Luna but there was hardly a waking moment she was not in the presence of her two best friends, Ron and Harry. Ginny would refuse to be around the latter without question and this saddened the brunette deeply. For this reason, Hermione had taken up the habit of holding Ginny while she fell asleep when staying at the burrow. It helped the girl immensely and Hermione never minded doing it for her friend. It was their chance to be alone and it allowed the older witch to act as a protector as she always wanted to be.

Ginny looked forward to Hermione’s visits more and more as their summer passed by. She’d make sure she knew every time the young woman would be around and marked those days on a little calendar hanging on the back of her bedroom door. Luna began receiving “rain checks” occasionally if her invitations coincided with a date Hermione had planned to spend the night. The blonde was unsettled and saddened at first but, after reflecting on the situation, she knew what Ginny had wanted more and needed the most. A restful night every couple of weeks was exactly what the redhead wanted and sincerely needed.

There was far more than a feeling of safety for the girl once the brunette’s arms wrapped around her, however.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments and constructive criticism are welcomed! It has been years since I have posted fics of my own and I'm happy to take suggestions from readers on what I could do better.


End file.
